IIG DISEASES OP THE HOESE. 



The symptoms of this form of inflammation of the lungs are 

 strono-ly marked, and at once point out the suffering organ. 

 The breathing is greatly affected ; quick, short, distressed, and 

 often as many as sixty or seventy respirations in a minute. 

 The pulse, too, is very quick; seventy, eighty, or ninety a 

 minute, and often small and almost imperceptible. The legs 

 and ears are, or soon become, icy cold; the mouth usually hot ; 

 the membrane of the nostrils intensely red, or of a livid colour. 

 The horse prefers a standing posture, with the fore legs stretched 

 apart, so that the muscles external to the chest may assist in 

 respiration ; the appetite is altogether lost, and the horse eagerly 

 thrusts his head towards the door, or the coolest place in the 

 stable. If relief be not very soon obtained, the severity of the 

 symptoms increase ; the air cells become choked with blood ; 

 and the horse dies, as it were, from suffocation, in the course of 

 twelve to twenty-four hours. Mr. Percivall distinguishes this 

 disease from pneumonia, and designates it congestion of the lungs. 



When blood is abstracted, it is almost invariably found of a 

 very dark colour, which is owing to the gorged state of the lungs 

 preventing the purification of the blood from taking place. 



True injiammation of the Lungs, when its symptoms are un- 

 subdued, usually terminates fatally in the course of four or five 

 days ; though sometimes it gets into a sub -acute state, and lingers 

 on for several weeks. 



Its first symptom is usually a diminution or loss of appetite, 

 but in some cases a troublesome cough may precede this want 

 of appetite for several days. 



The pulse and respiration are soon affected, both becoming 

 exceedingly quick ; the pulse from sixty to one hundred in a 

 minute, and the breathing either almost as fast, or otherwise 

 laborious and diflficult. 



The pulse may be either full, and strong or hard, or otherwise 

 weak and almost imperceptible ; in the latter case our prognosis 

 is more unfavourable than in the former. The legs and ears 

 are usually cold and the mouth hot, and the membrane of the 

 nostrils and eyelids intensely red. In some cases there is a 

 cougli, in others none whatever ; and often when there has 

 been a cough before, it ceases as the inflammation becomes 

 more intense. 



The bowels are generally inclined to be costive, and after 

 the disease has existed for some time, the dung is coated with 

 mucus. 



Some insight into the nature and extent of the disease may 

 be obtained by what is called auscultation. 



On applying the ear to the sides of the chest, when the animal 

 is in a healthy state, we notice a murmuring sound, difficult to 

 be described, but readily heard. This sound is produced by tlie 



